https://ghananewsagency.org/

Government urged to establish Technology Park

By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Aug. 30, GNA - Professor Samuel
Mensah Sackey, Director, Technology Programme, Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science and Technology (KNUST), has called on the Government to help establish
Ghana's maiden Technology Park at the KNUST, to help transform the nation into
major technology giant.

A Technology Park is an area where companies
have offices and laboratories and do work involving science and technology.

Prof Sackey recounted that everywhere
Technology Park had been implemented, it had contributed to the acceleration of
industrial growth.

He said it was through innovation that one
could produce new products, which implied that there would be creation of
employment, thereby helping to drive Ghana’s economic development agenda.

Prof Sackey made the call in an interview
with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, on the sidelines of the fourth
National Development Forum, organised by the National Development Planning
Commission (NDPC).

The forum, which registered stakeholders in
Technology Development, was on the theme “Mastering Technology for Innovation
and Transformation of Ghana’s Future”.

Prof Sackey noted that in any technology
park, there were three key players; the Government, a leading university having
its researchers; and private sector firms.

He said the role of the Government was to
provide the funding to develop the required infrastructure; being the
buildings, roads, machinery and the research equipment.

Prof Sackey told GNA that once the lecturers
come together to work collaboratively with the private sector firms, they were
able to come up with innovations which were later implemented by the private
sector firms.

He said one of the major issues regarding
technology development in Africa, was the fact that Africa had not been able to
master technology, adding “we import technology, we use it, and when it runs
down we are not able repair or sustain it".

He said until Africa was able to master
technology and replicate it; it would lag behind and this was a challenge to
the development of technology.

He reiterated that in establishing a
Technology Park, Government should come out with funding to help set up the
physical park, which also includes spaces for startups (incubation space).

Prof Sackey said in any technology park one
would find rapid prototyping facilities as well other facilities for scaling up
production.

He said in advanced countries technology
parks had proven to play a key role in economic development, and there were few
countries in Africa that had as many as six technology parks; unfortunately,
Ghana did not have its first technology park yet.

Dr Thomas Mensah, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer, Silicon Valley of Ghana, who delivered the keynote address,
said in order to accelerate Ghana's socioeconomic development there was the
need to expand infrastructure and industry.

He said Ghana at this stage of her
development needed high-speed train systems, aircraft maintenance facility and
underground drainage systems to solve the problem of annual flooding in the
cities.